nmates to be nervous.

On re-entering my room, the cause of my late symptoms became manifest in
the first breath I inhaled of the atmosphere; even as it now was,
comparatively purified by a current of fresh air, the gaseous smell
continued disagreeable and distressing.

I sent for the fireman of the hotel,--that is, the person so called who
lights and looks after the hundred fires going in one of these
establishments: he was a countryman and a staunch personal friend; and,
after hearing my story and removing the anthracite coal, he pledged
himself never to burn anything but wood in my chamber for the time to
come.

I next questioned my friend as to whether he had ever before known any
person as severely affected from the same cause. He said he had heard
gentlemen complain now and again, "But the cowld soon makes them get
used to it," said Pat; adding, that most persons left a little of the
window open if the weather permitted.

This was my first and last experiment with this coal, which is
nevertheless burned almost universally in the north, though they have
abundance of fine Nova Scotia coal, that appears little inferior to the
best Lancashire. Liverpool coal is a good deal used in New York; but the
ladies give the preference uniformly to the anthracite, which does not
yield much dust or black smoke, and consequently preserves for a longer
period both furniture and dress: it also renders a room quickly and
equally warm without requiring attendance, when once lighted, burning
constantly with a red heat, and fiercely or otherwise in proportion to
the draft, which all the stoves here permit to be regulated at will.

Nevertheless, I think all its advantages are nothing when weighed
against the injurious effect the atmosphere it generates must have upon
the health of those constantly within its influence.

It may, with great advantage, be used for hall-stoves, for heating
air-pipes, or in situations where there is a ready circulation of air;
but ought not, I think, to be continued in the drawing-rooms of families
or in the chambers of the studious.

_Sunday, 15th._--The snow lying about a foot deep in the streets, but in
places drifted to a great height: numbers of make-shift sleighs already
jingling about the town, Baltimore having precedence of the northern
cities this year in an amusement not often enjoyed here.

I had a trial of the sleigh for a couple of hours; and in company with a
fat friend was bumped over